Renewable Systems

The Renewable Systems program area works to reduce the risks of transformative energy solutions that will enhance the nation’s security and economic prosperity. Energy security research at Sandia seeks to address key challenges facing our nation and the world. We work with the energy industry to improve current hardware and develop the next generation of technologies to extract or produce energy.

The Energy and Climate (EC) Program Management Unit (PMU) spearheads research into energy alternatives that will help the nation reduce its dependence on oil and coal and to combat the effects of climate change. Sandia’s long history with geothermal, solar, and wind energy research has seen a vast increase in effort and intensity over the past 15 years and has also been supplemented in recent years with efforts in biologically based fuels: biomass from nonfood plant sources and algae—both of which can be grown on land unsuitable for farming.

No single technology solution will address the hurdles in front of us; the future calls for a variety of options available to consumers. To that end, we have a broad portfolio of research activities related to achieving our transportation energy mission:

Sandia National Laboratories’ Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Programs provide a dynamic, multifaceted approach to systems-based research and development of nuclear energy and fuel cycle technologies. Sandia supports the safe, secure, reliable, and sustainable use of nuclear power worldwide through strengths in repository science, nonproliferation, safety and security, transportation, modeling, and system demonstrations. As a national leader, Sandia strives to enhance the nation’s security and prosperity through sustainable, transformative approaches to the world’s most difficult nuclear energy challenges.

Since the late 1970s, this program has developed and transferred Sandia technologies to assist the natural gas and oil industry, especially U.S. independent producers. Our goal is to maintain a secure, economic supply of the nation’s natural gas and crude oil.

The novel approaches to increasing energy efficiency and developing clean energy sources developed in the national laboratories can then be transferred to industry to resolve the nation’s energy future.

Renewable Systems News

SolarReserve Is Testing Prototype Heliostats at NSTTFSolarReserve is testing engineering units at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) operated by Sandia. The company says it decided to test its prototype heliostats at NSTTF because of Sandia’s, “knowledge and reputation in the solar industry, as well as the breadth of resources available for improving and testing new designs.” SolarReserve is focused […]

Linde, Sandia Partnership Looks to Expand Hydrogen Fueling NetworkSandia and industrial gas giant Linde LLC have signed an umbrella cooperative R&D agreement (CRADA) that is expected to accelerate the development of low-carbon energy and industrial technologies, beginning with hydrogen and fuel cells. On December 10, 2014, Linde opened the first-ever, fully certified commercial hydrogen fueling station near Sacramento with support from the California […]

Storing Hydrogen Underground Could Boost Transportation, Energy SecurityLarge-scale storage of low-pressure, gaseous hydrogen in salt caverns and other underground sites for transportation fuel and grid-scale energy applications offers several advantages over above-ground storage, says a recent Sandia study sponsored by the DOE Fuel Cell Technologies Office. Geologic storage of hydrogen gas could make it possible to produce and distribute large quantities of […]

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Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.